Arts leadership students connect with community

The Nerdy Derby took place Oct. 9-11 at the NoCo Mini Maker Faire at the Rocky Mountain Center for Innovation and Technology in Loveland. The NoCo Mini Maker Faire exhibits a culmination of creative science, technology and art for all ages – rockets, robots, inventors, mad scientists, tinkerers, fantasy and sci-fi creations, youth entrepreneurs and more. The Nerdy Derby station, in particular, provided a creative space for children and the community to build their own unique cars to race down a state-of-the-art track. This year’s track was 3-D printed personally by CSU students for all Colorado events, and proved to be very successful at the Maker Faire in Denver this past summer.

LEAP students assist participants in designing their race cars.

At the beginning of the fall semester, one upper-division and one lower-division LEAP class joined to collectively create the Nerdy Derby event. The event’s mission was to provide the community with a place to exhaust their creative thinking and experience some of the astounding work done by local artists all around Colorado. Because the higher-level students were more familiar with the LEAP program and what was required to organize this event, those students mentored freshman students to share their knowledge and facilitate the tasks that each group was given.

A Nerdy Derby participant anxiously waits at the finish line during his derby car race.

The groups tackled tasks such as acquiring the necessary materials for every aspect of the event, which required asking local and commercial businesses to help out with the materials in any way they could, advertising the NoCo Mini Maker Faire around town and surrounding areas, and planning for all related details and logistics. As the weekend of the NoCo Mini Maker Faire approached the excitement and stress levels rose in the classroom where the LEAP students continued to work diligently to make it a success.

Students, families, artists, tech geeks and others have found the creations shown at the NoCo Mini Maker Faire interesting and fun for all, and the Nerdy Derby was just one of the many engaging stops throughout the Faire. The LEAP students will continue to participate in the Mini Maker Fair for years to come, thereby learning fundamentals of event planning and community collaboration.

To learn more about the LEAP’s Minor in Arts Leadership and Administration visit the website.